myroblyte has adopted no words, looked up 0 words, created 1 list, listed 85 words, written 17 comments, added 0 tags, and loved 1 word.

Comments by myroblyte

  • An abuse of Latin? It comes from Duns Scotus.

    July 16, 2010

  • Cf. St. Augustine, De trin., book X, para. 2, "If then, for example, any one were to ask, What is metheglin (for I had instanced this word already), and it were said to him, What does this matter to you? He will answer, Lest perhaps I hear some one speaking, and understand him not; or perhaps read the word somewhere, and know not what the writer meant. Who, pray, would say to such an inquirer, Do not care about understanding what you hear; do not care about knowing what you read? For almost every rational soul quickly discerns the beauty of that knowledge, through which the thoughts of men are mutually made known by the enunciation of significant words; and it is on account of this fitness thus known, and because known therefore loved, that such an unknown word is studiously sought out. When then he hears and learns that wine was called metheglin by our forefathers, but that the word is already quite obsolete in our present usage of language, he will think perhaps that he has still need of the word on account of this or that book of those forefathers. But if he holds these also to be superfluous, perhaps he does now come to think the word not worth remembering, since he sees it has nothing to do with that species of learning which he knows with the mind, and gazes upon, and so loves." Translation source: NewAdvent.org (http://j.mp/brxU7Q), which uses the Latin word temetum for metheglin.

    June 8, 2010

  • I learned this word from Geoff Nunberg

    March 31, 2010

  • a strip of fat used in larding, esp. as drawn through the substance of meat, chicken, etc., with a kind of needle or pin.

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lardon

    November 22, 2009

  • Harrumph.

    August 7, 2009

  • Definition: "A stupid, gauche person; a blockhead" (http://www.answers.com/chucklehead)

    July 9, 2009

  • often also applied to the curtain-like appearance of distant clouds with rain or snow falling from them

    November 19, 2008

  • From Bartleby.com:

    Pickwickian. In a Pickwickian sense. An insult whitewashed. Mr. Pickwick accused Mr. Blotton of acting in “a vile and calumnious manner,�? whereupon Mr. Blotton retorted by calling Mr. Pickwick “a humbug.�? It finally was made to appear that both had used the offensive words only in a Pickwickian sense, and that each had, in fact, the highest regard and esteem for the other. So the affront was adjusted, and both were satisfied.

    “Lawyers and politicians daily abuse each other in a Pickwickian sense.�? — Bowditch.

    http://www.bartleby.com/81/13217.html

    April 28, 2008

  • Definition: "A malfunction that causes an undesired delay in the functioning of a firing system." From TheFreeDictionary.com.

    April 28, 2008

  • From Dictionary.com: "a British noun for a swindle." Discovered in one of the Railway Series stories by W. Awdry (the original Thomas the Tank Engine books). Context: "What a swiz! It's only Gordon back to front."

    December 31, 2007

  • Cardinal Wolsey: "What though I know her vertuous

    And well deseruing? yet I know her for

    A spleeny Lutheran, and not wholsome to

    Our cause, that she should lye i'th' bosome of

    Our hard rul'd King."

    Henry VIII, III.2 (snipr.com/1okxh)

    July 21, 2007

  • Here's the official definition.

    "The number six marked upon dice; a throw in which the die turns up six. Often in figurative contexts and phrases, as to set at cinque and sice"
    Via the daily mailing list.

    February 19, 2007

  • The proper spelling appears to be skosh. Presumably this would rhyme with the first syllable of kosher. Scoatch appears to mean something slighly different, viz.: to prop up with a shim, chuck, or block (link). Thank you stpeter.

    December 29, 2006

  • Meaning: a very tiny amount, or a very tiny distance. Rhymes with "roach." Alternatively spelled skoach, scoach, or skoatch; possibly also scoche.

    December 29, 2006

  • Gatso, n. DRAFT ENTRY June 2003

    Motoring.

    Brit. /gats/, U.S. /gætso/ (Shortened < the name of Maurice Gatsonides 1911-98, Dutch racing driver, who invented the prototype.)

    A proprietary name for: a camera employed in police traffic control, which uses radar to measure the speeds of vehicles, photographing those exceeding a specified limit. Freq. attrib., esp. in Gatso camera,

    -meter.

    1978 (title) Gatso mini radar..instruction manual. 1987 Camera Weekly 25 July 55/4 The Gatsometer uses a radar gun behind a police car's radiator grille to trigger a camera mounted behind the windscreen. 1992 Daily Tel. 1 July 4/5 The Gatso cameras have been used as evidence to prosecute offenders jumping traffic lights. 2001 Guardian 14 Aug. 3/1 The government yesterday gave its strongest signal yet that Specs, Gatsos and Vascars--and the rest of the growing police armoury of speed cameras--are to become as routine as traffic lights on British roads.

    December 25, 2006

  • "Tinder box" or "powder keg" of sin. From Augustine. See snurl.com/15m63 for a usage example.

    December 22, 2006

  • An iconographic term. The cephalophore in religious (esp. medieval Christian) art is a beheaded saint who displays his severed head to an audience.

    December 12, 2006

Comments for myroblyte

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.